De Lima: Bong Go helped PNP exec linked to mayor’s killing

‘OPEN SECRET’ Sen. Leila de Lima says it’s an open secret among PNP officials that President
Duterte’s special assistant, Bong Go (left), intervened for the reinstatement of a police official
involved in a raid that resulted in the killing ofAlbuera Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr. MALACAÑANGPHOTO

Christopher “Bong” Go, President Duterte’s special assistant, interceded for the reinstatement of Supt. Marvin Marcos, who was implicated in what had been described as the  “premeditated” killing of Mayor Rolando Espinosa in a Leyte jail on Nov. 5, Sen. Leila de Lima disclosed on Thursday.

Go, 43, called Philippine National Police Director General Ronald dela Rosa and told him to reinstate Marcos, regional head of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), and his men involved in the raid on a subprovincial jail in which Espinosa and another inmate, Raul Yap, were killed, De Lima said.

“That’s an open secret among PNP officials, that it’s Bong Go,” De Lima said.

She said the information came from a PNP source whom she did not name.

 ‘Pure hearsay’

Go denied as “pure hearsay and unsubstantiated” De Lima’s claim. “I do not interfere with the affairs and functions of the PNP.”

Dela Rosa had issued the relief order sometime after Espinosa’s son Kerwin, a suspected drug lord, was arrested on Oct. 17 in the United Arab Emirates.

Marcos, Kerwin claimed, was one of the police officials to whom he was giving protection money.

Kerwin’s confession led to the relief order that De Lima referred to in which Go purportedly had intervened that had led to the reinstatement of Marcos.

Marcos and his CIDG men, armed with a court order, were supposed to search the Baybay subprovincial jail for drugs and firearms on Nov. 5, but Espinosa resisted and was gunned down.

Senators conducting an inquiry called the killing of the Albuera mayor “premeditated.”

A second relief order was issued after the mayor’s killing and Kerwin’s return on Nov. 18. He later testified before the Senate, confirming his allegation against Marcos and his group. The CIDG officials are now under restricted custody at Camp Crame.

Dela Rosa said on Monday that a Malacañang “kumpare”—a sponsor in a wedding, baptism or confirmation—had requested him to reinstate Marcos the first time he was relieved. He declined to name the man, but said he was not the President who he said was his godfather.

Humanitarian considerations

“He asked for consideration as he said the group of Marcos called him up and sought help from him if they can remain in their posts because their families will suffer because a lot of them will be transferred to Camp Crame,” Dela Rosa recounted. “I said yes, no problem, for humanitarian considerations.”

Dela Rosa spoke to reporters at a PNP gift-giving party for children of drug pushers and users at a mall in Mandaluyong City.

He earlier said he was prepared to reveal in an executive session the man who had interceded for Marcos and his men the first time around.

Dela Rosa said he was ready to accept the consequences of his decision.  “I didn’t see any problem letting them stay there [in Region 8], so that’s my decision. I may be hounded, I may be praised for that decision, I will accept it. That’s my own decision, my own volition to reinstate them,” he said.

De Lima told reporters that PNP officials were unhappy about Dela Rosa’s action.

“Some of these PNP officials did not like that the hierarchy of the PNP was bypassed when Marcos was reinstated without clearing it with them or without asking them,” she said, adding the head of the CIDG at headquarters was unaware of Dela Rosa’s action.

De Lima, an outspoken critic of the Duterte administration’s bloody war on drugs, said Dela Rosa and Go could be liable for abuse of authority and conduct prejudicial to the interest of the service.

De Lima also is facing accusations she protected drug lords when she was justice secretary and received money from them for her senatorial campaign.

Command responsibility

Asked for comment, Sen. Panfilo Lacson said that regardless of who requested Dela Rosa to reinstate Marcos, “all assignments and designations of police officers are his responsibility being the one making the decision, unless he was ordered to do so by a higher authority.”

“That is the essence of the principle of command responsibility,” said Lacson, a former PNP chief and head of the Senate committee looking into the Espinosa killing.

He described as improper Dela Rosa’s action, noting that the PNP chief himself admitted that “there was prior information linking Marcos and some of his team members to the illegal drugs trade in Eastern Visayas, particularly with the Espinosas of Albuera.”

“Therefore, it’s kind of no-brainer that they should be uprooted from that area and reassigned to the regional or national holding group and undergo investigation,” Lacson said.

He said those entering the police or military service were aware that they would be sent on assignments that would separate them from their families.

“Therefore, no humanitarian considerations can be invoked when it comes to assignments. Director General Dela Rosa knows that or at least was supposed to know that,” he added. —WITH A REPORT FROM MARLON RAMOS